Turkish teachers' and supervisors' metaphorical perceptions about supervisors

Abstract

This study examined the metaphorical perceptions of Turkish elementary school teachers regarding supervisors and those of supervisors regarding themselves. The study has been conducted as a qualitative research. The data were gathered through two separate focus group studies and analyzed by content analysis technique. Results of the study show that there is considerable difference between metaphorical perceptions of teachers and supervisors about supervisors. While teachers describe supervisors with such metaphors as “photographer”, “robot”, “mother-in-law” and “fault hunter”, supervisors describe existing supervisors as “walking stick”, “tong” “player”, and “executioner”. This study is expected to identify and offer solutions for the failures, barriers and problems in teacher – supervisor relationships during the process of supervision.